Talking about antiOtherism the other day (Holocaust Remembrance Day) reminded me that we haven’t spoken about Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in a while.  (TJ, as it is affectionately called, is often rated as America’s Number 1 high school.)

You remember, we discussed that Fairfax County decided to alter the process by which students were selected for the school.  Despite the fact that it’s supposed to be an elite institution, training our best students in STEM, a lottery was adopted (or at least partially adopted) to afford the ability of students who didn’t meet the previous standards to matriculate at the institution.  (Remember that the US Circuit Court (and upheld by the US Supreme Court) let this new policy remain back in 2022, to make room for African-American and Hispanic students.)

Well, this year, the school elected to withhold information from its student- and the population at large.  What information?  Those students who were identified as National Merit Scholarship (NMSC) finalists were not notified by the school or publicized, despite the fact that the school ws informed about the honors. The NMSC recognizes and honors our academically talented students- with recognition and financial awards.

Juniors in high school routinely take the PSAT (Practice Student Achievement Tests); students who wish to participate in the National Merit Program need to fill out a few extra forms.  Some 1.5 million entrants participate in the program, with the 50,000 highest scoring students (top 3% of the student contestants) considered for the elite designation as National Merit Scholar or Finalist. Some 34000 students around the US are notified that were awarded a Letter of  Commendation.  The others, 16000 of them (top 1% of those entrants) , qualify as semi-finalists.  There are different cut-off points for each of the states in the Union (not a uniform score).   About 7200 are awarded some form of National Merit Scholarship.

That’s the background.

The TJ story is more interesting , given those facts (if one recognizes it for the bias involved).  It seems that the students at TJ (or the newspapers or the parents) were not informed of their selection.  Normally, these students would be able to include this distinction on their college applications, except the TJ administration withheld the information.

Why? Because the administration did not want it known that the Asian Americans (who still constitute a major portion of the student population, despite the lottery component and lowered academic cutoffs for the current class) received the bulk of the recognition letters.

(There are calls to fire Ann Bonitatibus (TJ principal) and Brandon Kosatka (TJ Director of Student Services by the parents of Thomas Jefferson students.   And, this escapade  so incensed the Governor and Attorney General of Virginia that they are effecting a civil rights investigation into the school practice.  At that point, it was determined that Westfield and Langley, two other Fairfax County High Schools, also withheld that information from their students. And, with the expanded investigation, a nearby county, Loudoun, admitted it delayed notification to students at its three high schools- and then four more Fairfax High Schools (meaning that 1/4 of all the Fairfax County High schools) admitted the same infraction.)

Before you jump to the wrong conclusion- the one the TJ administration hopes to gaslight- let’s examine the facts.  Asian American finalists accounted for 101 of the 132 winners.  That’s 77%.  Langley’s census was 66%; Westfield’s percentage of Asian American winners was 80%.  (Note there were SIGNIFICANTLY fewer Semifinalists at Langley (15) and Westfield (5) than at TJ.) Oh, and the student population in Fairfax County is only 19% Asian American.

These discriminatory policies simply have to stop.

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